Apparatus and method for providing a provider-selected message in response to a user request for user-selected information

ABSTRACT

A method for providing a provider-selected message in response to a user request for user-selected information is disclosed. The method includes receiving a request from a client program for user-selected information. If a provider-selected message has not been previously transmitted to the client program, the method further includes transmitting provider-selected information to the client program. If a provider-selected message has been previously transmitted to the client program, the method further includes transmitting the user-selected information. In one embodiment, the method also includes receiving a second request from the client program for the user-selected information after the provider-selected information is displayed for a limited time.

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/457,451, filed Jul. 13, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,933,969, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/001,761, filed Oct. 31,2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,110,962, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 08/912,991, filed Aug. 11, 1997, now abandoned.Priority to the aforementioned applications is hereby expressly claimedin accordance with 35 U.S.C. §120 and any other applicable statutes, andthese applications are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Internet information services differ in a number of ways fromtraditional broadcast services such as television and radio. Thesedifferences make it much more difficult for the internet informationservices provider to attract the attention of the internet user tomessages that the internet user has not actively sought, such ascommercially sponsored messages, than has been the case with traditionalbroadcast services.

One such difference is that the internet user normally controls thechannel to her receiving equipment, typically a computer. The internetuser therefore may play an active role in selecting informationresources transmitted. In contrast, in traditional broadcast media, theuser has no control at all over the channel, and may select informationresources only by receiving or not receiving (such as by changing thechannel) information placed on the channel by the broadcaster.

Further, in traditional broadcast media, transmissions are often used bythe recipient without the assistance of content storage or processingequipment, which might permit the user to avoid or minimize exposure tounwanted or uninteresting information from the transmission. The user oftraditional broadcast media therefore generally cannot direct his or herattention only to desired portions of the transmission withoutinterrupting the viewing process. The user therefore normally views mostor all information intended for the viewer by the broadcaster whileviewing a broadcast. The user's viewing process is substantially underthe control of the broadcaster.

For example, a traditional broadcast typically includes programming toinduce users to tune the broadcast channel. In order to derive revenuefrom the broadcast, the broadcaster typically intersperses commercialsponsored messages, which the user may not desire to view, with theprogramming which the viewer seeks. Because the user does not controlthe channel, the user has no choice but to receive commercial messagesinterspersed with the program while tuned to the channel. If the programis viewed as received, the viewer further must either view suchcommercial messages or interrupt viewing the channel altogether, perhapsby tuning another channel.

Internet users, unlike broadcast users, may exercise control over thechannel to their receiver. Unlike a broadcast, in which a stream ofinformation is transmitted without regard to any user's desire toreceive it, interact information is typically transmitted only inresponse to a request.

Like broadcasters, internet information providers often desire tointersperse commercially sponsored messages with information sought byusers, hoping to induce users to view the commercially sponsoredmessages along with user-selected information. However, internet usersreceive requested information in digital form and store and/or processsome or all of the requested information on computers before or duringthe viewing process. As a result, internet information providerstypically exercise far less control over the viewing process than dobroadcasters, and unwanted or uninteresting content may be easilyignored or avoided by the internet user. It is thus more difficult forinternet information providers to effectively deliver commerciallysponsored messages to internet users than for traditional broadcasters.

For example, internet search service providers often display so-calledbanner advertisements on the same page with search results. Experiencehas shown, however, that search service users often focus only onretrieved search results and ignore displayed banner advertisements.

For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved internetmessaging system that permits the internet information provider greatercontrol over the user's viewing process of provider-selected messages,without otherwise interfering with the viewing process of user-selectedinformation.

SUMMARY

The present invention is directed to an improved internet messagingsystem that satisfies the need for providing the internet informationprovider greater control over the viewing process of provider-selectedmessages. The system comprises an apparatus and method for providing aprovider-selected message in response to a user request foruser-selected information.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatusfor conveying information to the internet user that the user has notselected interspersed with information that the user has selected insuch a way that the user has difficulty ignoring or avoiding suchunselected information without interrupting the viewing process.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method andsystem for substantially controlling the viewing process during thedisplay of a time-delimited provider-selected message as a prerequisiteto permitting the user to retrieve user-selected information.

A further objective of the present invention is to monitor thetransmission of user-selected information to a user, and to intersperseprovider-selected information with user-selected information atintervals under the control of the information service provider.

These and other objectives are accomplished by the present invention.

A system having the features of the present invention comprises aninternet server for receiving a user request for user-selectedinformation, and for determining if a qualified provider-selectedmessage has previously been transmitted to the user. The servertransmits provider-selected information (such as a commercial message)in response to the user request if no qualifying provider-selectedmessage has been previously transmitted to the user.

Such a system may further comprise a provider-selected message whichcauses the user's computer to automatically again request theuser-selected information that resulted in transmission of theprovider-selected message, after an appropriate display interval. Such aprovider-selected message may be a qualifying provider-selected message,in which case the automatic request for user-selected information willresult in the transmission of the originally sought user-selectedinformation. During the display interval, the provider may substantiallycontrol the user's client program.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic showing exchange of requests and responses inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A method and system for interspersing messages not selected by the userwith user-selected messages is disclosed.

Internet information services are typically provided via client/serverprograms, in which a client program executing on a user's computer isused to request information services from a server program executing onan information service provider's computer. In one popular method,information and requests are transmitted via the so-called HyperTextTransport Protocol (“HTTP”). Users' HTTP client programs are typicallyknown as “browsers” and commercial embodiments are available fromNetscape and Microsoft, among others. HTTP server programs operated byinformation service providers respond to users' browsers' HTTP requests.Commercial HTTP server embodiments (frequently referred to as “webservers”) are available from Microsoft and Netscape, and royalty-freeembodiments are available from NCSA, CERN and Apache.

In addition to sending HTTP requests and receiving HTTP responses fromservers, typical browsers parse certain classes of such responses,including Standardized General Markup Languages, most commonly includingHypertext Markup Language (“HTML”). In addition, many common browserscan parse and execute program code transmitted in HTTP responses. Forexample, two programming languages commonly executed by browsers areSunSoft's JAVA language and Netscape's JAVASCRIPT language.

HTTP requests and responses frequently include a wide variety ofinformation, often in conjunction with user-requested information. Suchother information is often transmitted in HTTP header fields. Suchheader fields are generally of four types: General Headers, RequestHeaders, Response Headers and Entity Headers.

General Headers may include such information as, for example, thetransfer-encoding scheme. Request Headers may include such informationas, for example, encoding schemes the client program can accept,name=value pairs known as “cookies”, or the “referrer” or URL of thedocument containing the link selected by the user to cause the browserto request the requested document. Response Headers may include suchinformation as, for example, the age of the requested document or a“Set-Cookie” header used to define cookie name=value pairs. EntityHeaders may include such information as, for example, the contentencoding scheme, content length or a message digest such as MD5. Morecomprehensive descriptions of commonly used headers appear in RFC 1945and Wong, Web Client Programming with Perl (1997, O'Reilly & Associates,Inc.)

Browser and other HTTP clients address information with UniversalResource Locators (“URL”s). HTML documents generally containuser-selectable references to such URL references, along with hypertextor graphical labels for the user-selectable reference or “link.” HTMLprovides a markup token or tag known as an anchor, which links adisplayed image or text segment with a URL so that when a user selectsthe linked image or text (the “link”), the browser client causes thecomputer to transmit an HTTP request for the information referenced bythe linked URL. Some systems permit users to store links locally as“bookmarks,” allowing a user to go directly to “bookmarked” pageswithout directly entering a URL or selecting a link on a transmittedpage.

Prior art forms of commercial messaging have included placingadvertisements such as the rectangular so-called “banner ad” on an HTMLpage with user-selected information, or providing an HTML pagecontaining advertisements with a link to a page containing user-selectedinformation. In the case of a banner ad, because the user-selected pagecontains both information sought by the user and provider-selectedinformation not sought by the user, the user may ignore theprovider-selected information not sought and direct her attention onlyto the information sought. In the case of an intermediate link, the usermay simply enter the URL of the user-selected page directly, or“bookmark” the page, and thus entirely bypass the commercial messagewhen the user returns to the page.

In the present invention, a user selecting a link does not receiveuser-selected information unless the information provider's serverdetermines that the user has previously received a qualifyingprovider-selected message. The provider-selected message need notcontain any user-selected information, and is thus substantially underthe control of the provider. Nevertheless, because the server will notpermit the user to retrieve user-selected content unless the user haspreviously received a qualifying provider-selected message, the user whosufficiently desires user-selected information available from theprovider will nevertheless receive and likely will viewprovider-selected information.

A provider-selected message may be any form of message capable oftransport via computer network, including any form of message capable oftransport via the HTTP protocol. Because the provider-selected messagedisplay need not contain user-selected information, theprovider-selected display is substantially under the control of theinformation provider.

State information sufficient to determine whether a given user haspreviously received a qualifying provider-selected message may bemaintained by the information provider or by the user, or both.

For example, a user request may contain sufficient information for aserver which maintains no state information for the requesting user todetermine that the user has previously received a qualifyingprovider-selected message. One such user request is an HTTP requestincluding a cookie indicating the time and nature of the lastprovider-selected message received by the user's browser. Such a requestwould permit the provider's server to determine if the user had receiveda provider-selected message which was qualifying because, for example,the user had received a commercially sponsored message within the lastone-half hour. A user frequently requesting information from such aserver would receive a commercially sponsored message every one-halfhour.

Alternatively, the state information could be divided between the userand the provider. For example, a user request could contain sufficientinformation for the provider only to identify the user, and all otherstate information relating to that user could be maintained by theprovider. One such user request is an HTTP request including a cookiename/value pair assigning a unique number to each separate browser bythe server. Using the identification number, the provider's server couldaccess a database containing information about the user, such as thetime and nature of the last provider-selected message transmitted to theuser. One such embodiment utilizes Microsoft Internet InformationServer's Active Server Page technology to set a unique cookie for eachuser and to associate a session variable with each user indicating thetime that the user last received a qualifying provider-selected message.Based on such information, the server could permit the user to retrieveuser-selected information only if, for example, the user had received acommercially sponsored message in the last one-half hour.

Alternatively, all state information may be maintained by the provider.For example, a provider's server could maintain a database ofprovider-selected messages transmitted in the last one-half hour and thenetwork addresses of the machines and programs that received thosemessages. If a user request is received from a network address on thelist, user-selected information would be transmitted in response.Otherwise, a provider-selected message would be transmitted in response.

One method for practicing the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. Instep 101, the internet information server receives a user request foruser-selected information. In step 102, the server determines thequalification state of the requestor using state information availableto the server at the time that the server responds to the request, suchas the state information described above. If the server determines instep 102 from the available state information that no qualifyingprovider-selected message has previously been sent to the requestor,then the server performs the step 103 of sending a qualifyingprovider-selected message to the requestor. The server then performs thestep 104 of sending the requested user-selected information to therequestor. If the server determines in step 102 that a qualifyingprovider-selected message has previously been sent to the requester,then the server may perform step 104 after step 101 without performingstep 103 in the interim.

In a preferred embodiment, request information is structured so as toinhibit a user from falsely indicating that she has fulfilled theprovider's requirements for access to user-selected information.

Qualification conditions may be dynamic, and are determined at the timethat the server responds to a user request. For example, a qualifyinginterval in the above example might be one-half hour from midnight tofive o'clock p.m. and then change automatically to fifteen minutes fromfive o'clock p.m. to midnight. Alternatively, a qualifying intervalmight vary based on other information available to the server, such asthe user's browser program type, or user information maintained by theserver.

User-selected information can only be accessed by a user who receivesmessages substantially under the control of the provider of theuser-selected information at intervals and on conditions under thecontinuous control of the provider.

FIG. 2 schematically depicts one embodiment of the present invention. Aninternet information server 201 is provided, which may comprise, forexample, an IBM compatible computer containing an Intel PENTIUM chip,running the Microsoft Windows NT operating system and Microsoft InternetInformation Server HTTP server software. The server is connected bymeans of a network adapter to a local computer network 203, which is inturn connected to the Internet 204. A user computer 202 is alsodepicted, which may comprise, for example, an IBM compatible computercontaining an Intel PENTIUM chip, running the Microsoft Windows 95operating system and Netscape Navigator HTTP browser client software.The user computer is connected by means of a network adapter to a localcomputer network 205, which is in turn connected to the Internet 204. Bymeans of the local computer networks 203 and 205 and the Internet 204,the internet information server 201 accepts requests from the clientprogram running on user computer 202 and delivers information to theclient program in response to such request.

One form of exchange of requests and responses is also depicted in FIG.2. Initially, a user's client program causes the user's computer 202 totransmit a first request 206 for user-selected information to theinternet information server 201 via the user's local computer network205, the Internet 204, and the local computer network 203 of theinternet information server 201. After ascertaining that the user hasnot previously received a qualifying provider-selected message, theinternet information server 201 responds to the user request bytransmitting a qualifying provider-selected message 207 to the user'scomputer across the server's local computer network 203, the internet204 and the user's local computer network 205.

After an appropriate period (determined by the server) of time, the userbecomes qualified by virtue of having been sent a qualifyingprovider-selected message 207 (and perhaps fulfilling some additionalconditions) within a provider-selected interval 214. The server 201 thentransmits the requested user-selected information 208 to the user'scomputer.

The server responds to additional requests for user-selected information(such as request 209 received during a provider-selected interval 214from a qualified user) with user-selected information 210, withouttransmitting a second qualifying provider-selected message. In apreferred embodiment, separate provider-selected intervals may beassociated with each qualifying provider-selected message. Additionalrequests for user-selected information received outside of theprovider-selected interval 214 such as 211 cause the transmission ofanother qualifying provider-selected message such as 212, and arefollowed by additional provider-selected intervals such as 215. Suchadditional provider-selected intervals may be of varying lengths, andmay begin after different periods of time following the transmission ofan associated qualifying provider-selected message.

In a preferred embodiment, provider-selected messages are time-delimitedand are displayed for only a limited period, after which user-selectedinformation is automatically displayed.

For example, in a preferred embodiment, transmission of a qualifyingprovider-selected message may be followed after a limited display periodby transmission of the original user-selected information. In one suchembodiment, a qualifying provider-selected HTTP message is transmittedto a JAVASCRIPT-enabled browser such as Netscape 3.0. The HTTP messageincludes HTML and JAVASCRIPT which causes the provider-selected HTML tobe displayed for a limited period, after which time the browserautomatically requests the originally sought user-selected informationfrom the provider's server which is then transmitted in response.

In a preferred embodiment, the user may be able to access otherprovider-selected information during the display of a time-delimitedmessage, for example, by following a link provided in an HTML documentincluded in the time-delimited message, but the user may not access theuser-selected information.

A variety of other timed-delimited provider-selected message embodimentswill be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, aprovider-selected interval during which a user is qualified to receiveuser-selected information may not begin until after the expiration of aminimum delay period. Such a qualifying provider-selected interval maybe utilized with a provider-selected message that causes a user'sbrowser to request user-selected information after displaying theprovider-selected message for a display period that exceeds the minimumdelay period.

One such provider-selected message includes an HTML tag such as: <METAHTTP_EQUIV=“REFRESH” CONTENT=“15;URL=http://www.provider.com/user-selected.html”> which causes the user'sbrowser to request the information addressed by the URLhttp://provider.com/user-selected.html after displaying the parsed htmlpage for 15 seconds. If the provider establishes a qualifying intervalthat begins fifteen seconds after the HTML message is received by theuser, then the user will automatically receive user-selected informationafter the parsed HTML has been displayed for fifteen seconds. Moreover,the user will be unable to retrieve the user-selected content until suchfifteen seconds has elapsed. Fifteen seconds is merely exemplary; anydelay may be specified.

If no minimum delay is set on the server, time display messages cannevertheless be used. However, a user seeking to avoid theprovider-selected message may be able to shorten the display period bydirectly entering or using a “bookmark” to request the user-selectedinformation a second time immediately after the server transmits theprovider-selected message.

The user's ability to bypass provider-selected messages foruser-selected information with no minimum delay can be removed bytransmitting user-selected information only in response to a request bythe provider-selected message.

Commonly available browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft InternetExplorer use the HTTP GET request method for bookmarked requests. Bytransmitting user-selected information only in response to HTTP POSTrequest methods, bookmarking of user-selected information can beavoided.

Nevertheless, it is possible with many browsers for a user to directlyenter a request using the HTTP POST request method. While such a requesttypically cannot be bookmarked, if the user can type the request intothe browser quickly enough, the display period could be shortened bymanual entry of the POST request. This can be avoided by use of thereferrer header. By transmitting user-selected information only inresponse to a POST request including a referrer header having the URL ofthe provider-selected message, the provider can prevent a user fromshortening the display period for the provider-selected message bybookmarking or manually entering the URL of the user-selected content.

In a preferred embodiment, these techniques may be combined to assurethat a provider-selected message is actually displayed by a user'sbrowser for a provider-selected display period before user-selectedinformation is retrieved. In one such embodiment, a qualifyingprovider-selected HTTP message includes HTML and javascript which causesthe provider-selected HTML to be displayed for a limited period, afterwhich the browser automatically requests the originally soughtuser-selected information from the provider's server, using the HTTPPost request method. The provider's server transmits user-selectedinformation only in response to such a request using the POST method,and which in addition includes a referrer header indicating that thereferrer is a URL for a qualifying provider-selected message. Incombination with a qualification condition requiring, for example, thatthe last provider-selected message has been received within the lastone-half hour, this embodiment would permit the provider to ensure thatthe user received and displayed a fifteen second commercial messageduring each half hour that the user requested information.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of delivering information across acomputer network, comprising: receiving, at a web server, a firstrequest from a client program for user-selected information;determining, at the web server, if a provider-selected message has beenpreviously transmitted to the client program within a time perioddetermined by the web server; if, based on the determining step, it isdetermined the provider-selected message has been previously transmittedto the client program within the time period, then transmitting, fromthe web server, the user-selected information to the client program fordisplay; and if, based on the determining step, it is determined theprovider-selected message has not been previously transmitted to theclient program within the time period, then: a) transmitting, from theweb server, the provider-selected message to the client program fordisplay, the provider-selected message being configured to cause theclient program to transmit a second request for the user-selectedinformation; and b) receiving, at the web server, the second request;and c) transmitting, from the web server, in response to the secondrequest, the user-selected information to the client program fordisplay.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein it is determined theprovider-selected message has not been previously transmitted to theclient program within the time period, and wherein the provider-selectedmessage is transmitted without the user-selected information.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the provider-selected message is configuredto cause the client program to: 1) display the provider-selected messagefor a limited time; and 2) then automatically transmit the secondrequest.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the provider-selected messageincludes a link provided in an HTML document, said link being associatedwith other provider-selected information.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the provider-selected message includes a link provided in anHTML document, said link being associated with other provider-selectedinformation.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein it is determined theprovider-selected message has been previously transmitted to the clientprogram within the time period, and wherein the user-selectedinformation is transmitted without the provider-selected message.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the provider-selected message comprises acommercially-sponsored message.
 8. A method of delivering informationacross a computer network, comprising: sending, from a client computer,a first request to a web server for user-selected information;receiving, at the client computer, a provider-selected message fordisplay, in response to the first request, the provider-selected messagehaving not been previously received at the client computer within a timeperiod, the provider-selected message being configured to cause theclient program to automatically send a second request for theuser-selected information; displaying, at the client computer, theprovider-selected message for a limited time; sending, from the clientcomputer, the second request for the user-selected information, afterdisplaying the provider-selected message for the limited time;receiving, at the client computer, the user-selected information fordisplay, after sending the second request; and displaying, at the clientcomputer, the user-selected information.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the provider-selected message is received without theuser-selected information.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein theprovider-selected message is displayed without the user-selectedinformation.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the user-selectedinformation is received without the provider-selected message.
 12. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the user-selected information is displayedwithout the provider-selected message.
 13. The method of claim 8,wherein the provider-selected message comprises a commercially-sponsoredmessage.
 14. An apparatus for delivering information across a computernetwork, comprising: a client computer running a client browser program;and a web server connected to the client computer through the Internet;wherein the web server is configured to: a) receive a first request fromthe client program for user-selected information; b) determine if aprovider-selected message has been previously transmitted to the clientprogram within a time period determined by the web server; c) transmitthe user-selected information to the client program for display if it isdetermined the provider-selected message has been previously transmittedto the client program within the time period; d) transmit theprovider-selected message to the client program for display if it isdetermined the provider-selected message has not been previouslytransmitted to the client program within the time period, theprovider-selected message being configured to cause the client programto transmit a second request for the user-selected information; e)receive the second request; and f) transmit, in response to the secondrequest, the user-selected information to the client program fordisplay.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the provider-selectedmessage is configured to cause the client program to 1) display theprovider-selected message for a limited time, and 2) then automaticallytransmit the second request for the user-selected information.
 16. Theapparatus of claim 14, wherein the web server is further configured totransmit the provider-selected message without the user-selectedinformation.
 17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the web server isfurther configured to transmit the user-selected information without theprovider-selected message.
 18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein theprovider-selected message comprises a commercially-sponsored message.